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March 1, 2014 by Kat

Photo-Heart Connection: February 2014

Who knows what the future holds?

I don’t. It’s but a faint line on the horizon. I can see the here and now, what is. I can see possibilities for the future, what might be.

To reach the future, I have to move into uncharted territory. Into the blank, unwritten part of my history.

I have plans and goals, but where the path I start on will end is still unformed. And that’s ok.

It used to be, I needed to be able to see the end before I started. I needed to know how it would all come out. But that road of expectations led to disappointment, more often than not. Because the end didn’t look like I had envisioned. The path didn’t always turn out to be the one I really wanted or needed to walk on.

Where I used to want predictable outcomes, I am ok now with a faintly formed outline of what might be. I am ok with changing my direction partway through. I am ok with not knowing.

Maybe this is a by-product of age; of maturity. Maybe it is a by-product of experience.

Because now I know, the end is often more interesting than what I could envision. And the journey is where all of the fun happens anyway.

I don’t need to know what the future holds. I just look out at that faint line on the horizon, and go.

My Photo-Heart Connection this month puts into words a change that has been slowly creeping over me for the last five to ten years. Turning from a driven, goal-oriented go-getter, always striving for the next achievement to someone who enjoys the journey and doesn’t mind winding my way along. Someone who doesn’t mind changing or abandoning a goal if it no longer suits. I’m now more in tune with myself, and what my heart wants. I don’t live my life for others, or for dreams of the past. I see all of that in this photograph, with it’s clear foreground tree and faintly visible horizon. I love that I can pull this out of my art, my heart.

What is your Photo-Heart Connection this month? What is your heart connection, in any art form? Here’s my approach to finding the Photo-Heart Connection:

Identify all of the image I worked with this month. I don’t look through every single image I captured with my camera, but the ones I decided had potential and I edited. The sorting through of the raw images to edit throughout the month is really the first step of my Photo-Heart Connection, I don’t need to do it twice.
I place them all in one location, in this case it’s a special folder on my hard drive where I export copies.
Then, in the quiet of the early morning, I look through them on a black background and see what kind of emotional response I have. If there is no emotional response at all, I delete. Generally, the first time through more than half are eliminated. There are always a few that start to bubble to the top.
As I get to these few that “bubble up” as having a stronger connection than the rest, I usually take a break. Go refresh my tea, and see what sticks in my mind. What words come out to describe the feelings that are coming with the remaining images.
When I sit down again, it’s usually with a top two or three. I look through them, feeling each one and the words that come. From there, I can usually tell which one is coming out on top, from the feeling of both image and words.
I start my blog post, add the picture and usually start with the few words that were with me as I made my decision, and then I write. I let the story emerge, as if I’m telling it to myself. What you see in the posts is the result.

Your approach to the Photo-Heart Connection is likely different. That’s ok, there is no right or wrong. Maybe this month, as you go through and do it, you can share your approach with us along with your February Photo-Heart Connection. Then we can all learn a bit more… about you, and about this wonderful process.

February 20, 2014 by Kat

Quiet, Revised (A Mobile Tutorial)

Hello, hello! My data is back, my computer is all up and running on my new hard drive, and I’m excited to be sharing a mobile tutorial with you today. Turns out, these Mobile Tutorial posts are easier to prepare on the computer than on the iPad, which I didn’t even realize until I was in the throes of my hard drive crash last week. Now that everything is back and running well, I can share a new tutorial with you.

I posted another version of this photograph last week, called Quiet. Later I started playing with a new-to-me app, Fragment, and discovered that there was more to do with this image! Here is the new version, called Quiet, Revised.

I’ll step you through the process of creating it. Here’s the original image, captured using ProCamera 7, on a walk during our big snowstorm two weeks ago. I saw this bird perched atop the tree and got as close as I could without scaring it away. Of course, without a zoom he’s pretty small in the original image:

So the first step is a crop, using Snapseed:

I like the placement of the tree and bird in this much better now! The next step is still in Snapseed, using a Vintage filter to start to shift the color, add a bit of texture, and create the vignette that works so well in this image, highlighting the bird atop the tree:

I was liking the vignette and texture, so I pulled it into XnView FX for some more texture work. I liked the addition of one texture:

But I wanted more. I liked where this was going, but wanted more dramatic texture and color. I played around with it in XnView FX for a while, looking at more color processing and textures. Unfortunately, I can’t remember exactly what I did within the app in sequence to share with you. The details aren’t so important, because if you follow this recipe you will have a different image and need to do different things. The important thing to take away is the incredible functionality that exists within a single app to transform your photographs. I know people who use only Snapseed to create amazing photographic work. XnView FX is another app with an amazing range of options for processing. Here’s the final image out of XnView FX:

This is Quiet. Originally, this is where I thought I was done. I loved the way the tree seemed to pop off the background. I loved the hushed feel, as if I was holding my breath, trying not to scare the bird away. Since I had cropped pretty substantially, from the 2448x2448px original to ~1700x1700px, I ran it through the Big Photo app to increase the resolution to ~3000x3000px. Having a high resolution file gives me flexibility in my printing options later.

Turns out I wasn’t done with this image, though. I purchased a new app, Fragment, which looked interesting for it’s ability to add geometric shapes to an image. Since I love to play with the combination of geometric and organic shapes, it seemed a good fit. I pulled “Quiet” into the app, just to play with its capabilities. In this app, the shapes you add are filled in with the original image you are working with. You can change the sizing and rotation of this “ghost” image within the added shape, which allows you control over the graphic impact of the shape relative to the original image.

As I played, suddenly a new version of Quiet emerged:

I loved the way the square shape framed the bird yet also creates some different dimensionality within the image. While the tree was popping off of the background before, now it is placed behind the frame. The rotation of the image within the square frame provides some great light/dark contrast against the background and some interest against the tree. You can’t quite tell what’s going on at first glance, and have to look closer. I like that. All in all, I think it added a nice dynamic element to an otherwise quiet scene. For me, this elevated the image from “nice” to “interesting,” but still with a peaceful, harmonious feel.

Here’s the mobile recipe for this edit, to remind you of the steps. You can download and save this recipe for later inspiration:

I am constantly amazed at how I can continue to create a wide variety of effects with just a few different apps. Find those apps you love, and really get to know them. It will pay off in the quality and consistency of your work.

I want to leave you with one final edit I did to this photograph, but discarded in the end. I took the original “Quiet” into Image Blender, and blended the new “Quiet, Revised” on top of it with blending mode Normal at 100%. Then I masked the frame over the tree:

I thought it would make the tree pop off of the background better, which it did. But it also lost it’s “interestingness” to me. In “Quiet, Revised,” the visual impact of the lines moving into and through the tree, and the bit of visual confusion it creates, make the image work for me. This last version doesn’t quite have the same energy, and goes back to “nice.”

Which version do you like best? Would you choose “Quiet,” “Quiet, Revised” or “Quiet, Discarded” as your favorite? Why? You know my choice, but take a moment to make your own, and sort through the reasons. Comparing similar images like this is a great way to discover your own personal aesthetic.

February 13, 2014 by Kat

Let’s Back Up a Bit

Normally I talk about the “fun” things related to photography and creativity, but today I’m going to turn my attention to the more mundane: Backing up your image files. Like file management in general, if you don’t put a little time and effort into this topic you may end up in a world of hurt.

This topic is on the top of my mind this week, because I’ve been in the throes of some computer maintenance. I’ve had indications that the main hard drive on my desktop computer is on it’s last legs, so I’ve been trying to replace it. It has turned out to be a bigger project than expected, first for technical reasons related to he new hard drive size and my computer, second for failed mirror image on my external back up, and finally, for the old hard drive failing permanently this morning.

Through all of this adventure, though, I’ve been calm and unworried about losing my data.

Why so calm? Because I have a solid back up strategy that means I’m in good shape. Let me walk you through it…

First, my desktop computer is my main archive. Even though I’m doing all of my photographic work on the iPhone and iPad these days, all of the image files I create get transferred over to the desktop for archival. I transfer the image files to my computer using Lightroom, same as I’ve always done for my dSLR files. (Did you know you can easily import from your device directly into Lightoom? Just plug in your device through a USB port and go to Lightroom’s Import menu. The device will show up as a drive and you can import as normal. One tip: Wait until iTunes has done its sync with the device before you try to Import with Lightroom.)

Once the files are on my desktop, they are backed up two places: An external USB hard drive (my mirror image drive) and online. You want both a local backup and an online back up, because they cover you in different situations.

The local backup is great way to get up and running quickly if you have an internal hard drive failure. All of your data should be right there, ready to restore if you accidentally delete a file or folder or replace your hard drive. There are a few maintenance things you need to do with an external hard drive backup:

1. Make sure your back up drive is larger than your internal hard drive. Some back up software saves multiple images of files and so the back up may require more space than you think.

2. Schedule your back up for a regular frequency. Most back up software allows you to schedule the back up for a time you aren’t using the computer. I back up daily, but weekly or a few times a week is likely fine. Think about how much you might lose if you have a hard drive crash between back ups, and the. Set the frequency accordingly.

3. Check periodically to make sure the back up is happening as you expect. Sometimes there can be software problems or settings in your computer that interfere with the regular back up. You may not get an error message.

4. Check to make sure that you can actually restore your files. This last one is the one that I got caught by this week, just assuming the mirror image would restore fine. It didn’t. A mirror image, which is supposed to restore all of your system software and settings in addition to data, is not something you can easily check, since it completely resets the computer. So I won’t be using a mirror image back up, at least on its own, going forward. I’ll find some good data back up software for my external hard drive that I can check for restorability occasionally. I need to do a little more research to find the right solution.

Since I’m not planning to back up a mirror image anymore, I need to make sure I have the system restore disks for my computer and install disks for all of the software I’ve added to my system over the last couple of years. Whenever I buy software, like Lightroom or MS Office, I like to buy a physical disk rather than just downloading from the web. This makes it easy to reinstall all of my software if I need to, as I’m doing this week on the new hard drive. I’m sure you can keep track of product keys and links for software downloads too, it just seems easier for me to keep track of a physical disk. I put them all in one place and forget about them. Easy archive.

So that’s the local back up. But what happens if there is a fire or a flood, and both my computer and local back up are damaged? What about theft? (Although the idea of a thief taking a 2.5 year old desktop seems laughable, I must admit.) Or what if both internal hard drive and local back up fail, as mine did this week?

You need a remote or online back up. Which I have, through Carbonite. And it felt great, through this whole process, to know no matter what was going on locally, my data was safe. All those photographs… From Brandon as a preschooler, to our two years of travels in Italy, to all of my fine art photographs… They are safe.

So it felt really good to call this morning for data recovery, since I’m all out of options here locally. I’ll be getting a hard drive FedEx’d to me with 800+GB of my backed up data, and I’ll get up and running on my new hard drive in no time. No loss, other than a little time.

There are lots of online back up options, beyond Carbonite. You’ll want to look at the cost, size limitations, and file types. I chose Carbonite because it backs up all of my files, regardless of type, with unlimited storage for one price. Many photo back up sites only back up JPG files, which doesn’t help you if you use RAW. And a photo-only back up doesn’t help for all of those other types of files… Like documents and spreadsheets and all, which can be important to life in general.

And just like the local back up, you’ll want to ensure your online back up solution is backing up on a regular frequency, working properly and you can restore your files when you need them. I’ve done that in the last week, before starting on this whole hard drive project, so I know I’m in good shape.

Here I sit this morning, a little inconvenienced my computer is not working, but that’s about it. Can you imagine what a mess I’d be if I’d lost EVERYTHING? All of my photographic work to date? All of the eCourse and Workshop files I’ve poured my heart and soul into? All of my personal documents? I can’t even imagine how upset I would be. Non-functional, probably.

How about you? How would YOU feel, if you were in my situation? Would you be sitting calmly, drinking tea and writing a blog post, or would you be pulling your hair out?

That’s why I’m talking back up strategy with you today. It’s not exciting or fun, but it’s important. If you are not in a good situation with your back up, make a plan and work on it TODAY. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Because if you’ve not had a hard drive failure yet in your life, someday you will. It’s just a matter of time.

February 11, 2014 by Kat

Snowbound

We finally got a bit of the weather craziness that has been plaguing the rest of the US late last week, with fifteen inches of snow falling on Thursday and Friday.

Now, for those of you in cold, snowy places, fifteen inches is nothing. Having grown up in Colorado, I’m well aware of that. But fifteen inches in a place that usually sees rain year-round and has very few snow plows? Where the general population freaks out at a single snowflake? Well, kind of a mess. School was closed, and my workplace was even closed, which is a rare occurrence. Activities, including an opening reception for my latest exhibition, were all cancelled. The streets were deserted.

Suddenly, there was space in the schedule and a beautiful world outside to explore. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

You may be seeing snow pics here for a while…

February 6, 2014 by Kat

Wide Open

What do you see in this image?

When I first saw this tree last week, I saw arms wide open, ready for a hug. I saw a mother tree, offering a sheltering embrace for her children. So I photographed it a couple of ways, but nothing came of them. They were flat, uninteresting.

But this week, after writing about arms reaching in my Photo-Heart Connection, I saw something else. I saw arms open wide, in celebration. Sending into the universe, receiving from the universe. And so, that’s what it needed to become. Arms wide open, in joyous celebration.

Hugging, sending, receiving… it can be all of those things. What do you see?

As I worked on the image, a line from a Gary Go song, Open Arms, kept running through my head: “It’s like open arms to me… Ready to… Ready to receive.” This was a favorite song of mine while I was in Italy, and it spoke to me deeply, connecting with where I was at that time in my journey.

In the way of beautiful art, it continues to speak to me, several years later, as I think about having arms uplifted, open. Ready to receive.

What speaks to you in this song, this image? What is it you see?

January 30, 2014 by Kat

Finding Your Artistic Vision

I had a thought-provoking conversation in the comments of last week’s Dealing with Disappointment post. Jack and I chatted on our capacity to deal with disappointment being correlated to our artistic vision. The gist of it: The stronger your personal vision, the less disappointments can effect you.

That rings true to me. The more I know why I create art and what I’m trying to achieve in my art, the less I care what other people think. Feedback from others is always colored by their personal values and opinions. If they have a different vision than mine for what art should look like, what it’s purpose is, then their feedback doesn’t need to be absorbed as truth. It can be registered and evaluated, then filed away if I decide it doesn’t apply to what I’m trying to do.

There is strength and clarity in having an artistic vision. It makes me sit up a bit taller, represent my art to others with confidence.

I have to admit, I don’t think I’ve had a clear vision of what I want to achieve in my art until sometime this last year. Or maybe I had one before and it shifted this last year. Either way, it’s taken lots of journaling, discussions with others, writing here, and looking critically at my art to help me clarify what it is I want to achieve with my art; to know what it is I want to express and communicate to others. I knew I had a vision when I could finally write an Artist Statement that rang true.

I certainly don’t always achieve my vision with the art I create. But it’s nice to have a personal standard I’m working toward. A goal for each piece. The artistic process becomes an ongoing cycle of “create, then evaluate,” deciding after the fact whether or not something fits my vision. I don’t want to mess up the creative process by putting too many judgments and filters on it up front, but I’ve discovered the pieces that end up in the long-term “keep” file are the ones that best fit my vision. Every time.

So, do you have an artistic vision? Do you know why you create what you create, and for whom? How did you get there? This is a worthy topic to give some thought to.

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